Will Trump's federal hiring freeze affect IRS tax returns?

President Trump signed an executive order last month enacting a hiring freeze for federal employees.

The memorandum is set to expire in 90 days for every department and agency besides the Internal Revenue Service. 

On its website, the IRS wrote that this means those with job offers with a start date after Feb. 8 will be revoked.

With the tax filing season recently starting and lasting until April 15, the IRS expects 140 million individual tax returns to be filed this year.

Will Trump’s hiring freeze affect your tax return and how early — or late — you get your refund?

Will Trump’s executive order impact the IRS?

Melanie Lauridsen, vice president of tax policy and advocacy for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), wrote that the organization is watching for impacts on the federal workforce. 

“We are greatly sensitive to the filing season service challenges for members and taxpayers,” she wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “While the AICPA acknowledges some concerns regarding the impact that the hiring freeze will have on administration, the IRS has said they will ‘reallocate workers from other areas to help cover filing season processing’ to meet the needs of this filing season.'”

In addition, seasonal employees have already been hired by the IRS and received training to begin working from January through May, Lauridsen wrote. 

In another LinkedIn post, former IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said, “Every facet of IRS operations will be significantly impacted by the current hiring freeze.”

“Fortunately, IRS employees are resilient and have considerable experience with hiring freeze operations,” Rettig wrote, attributing this to annual continuing resolutions. He added that they’ve been through such a freeze before from 2011 to 2018.

“IRS employees do their best with the limited resources and support received," Rettig said.

However, the former IRS official acknowledged that it is “difficult to deliver a private sector experience” with uncertainty in current and future operations. 

Dr. Steven Hamilton, an economics professor at George Washington University who specializes in public finance, said in an interview with The Independent that because of former President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS has a bigger staff. Through the legislation, the agency received $80 billion in additional funding.

“The IRS will function much better today and in the upcoming filing season with this hiring freeze than they would have, say, four years ago,” Hamilton said. 

A different executive order Trump signed, one ending remote work for federal employees, might make things more difficult, though, Nina Olson, executive director of the not-for-profit Center for Taxpayer Rights, said in the Journal of Accountancy.

"With the announcement of returning to work in the office, many of the IRS employees who are retirement age and currently teleworking may just decide to retire and lock in their retirement benefits," she wrote in an email. "If that happens, then some of the important filing season/taxpayer service/accounts positions the IRS has filled — phone, correspondence, error resolution, tax examiner — won't be able to be back-filled, and that will signal real impact on the filing season."

How can you prevent problems with tax refunds?

If you’re nervous about getting next year’s tax refund in a timely manner, you might want to follow some advice Christopher Stroup, CFP and owner of Silicon Beach Financial, gave to GoBankingRates.

It includes adjusting your withholding allowances and increasing your retirement contributions.

“By reducing your overall tax burden, you’re less likely to rely on a refund to balance your finances,” Stroup said.

He also recommends considering considering quarterly estimated payments as well as tracking and deducting business expenses.